It is known to what points teaching methods and methods for stimulating thinking have developed during the last ten or twenty years, both in universities and schools of all types as well as in the world of business affairs and industrial production.
Amongst the teaching means most widely used in the framework of the new didactic approach to teaching, it is possible to mention the method of case studies, the simulation of situations and the discussion of examples.
Whereas a first trend of these relatively recent developments has seen the role entrusted to the computer and the influence of the latter on its master increasing incessantly, on the contrary, a second trend has led towards the simplification of the methods and means used within the framework of pedagogic action.
At this point, it is useful to point out the decisive role played by photo-copying machines in the process for the diffusion of information, compared with that of computers.
Numerous methods have been proposed for facilitating the organisation of work, the classification of data for problems, the analysis of variables and the formulation of synthesis elements. Firstly, it is probably in the field of accountancy that the greatest imagination has been shown, then in the planning of production, the study of strategies etc.
Whether it is in the academic field, in that of the university, for continuous professional teaching or, more simply, in the daily work of the worker, taken separately or in a working group, the action of setting a problem correctly, or establishing the adequate diagnosis of a situation and that of examining the interaction of the variables, respectively making a list of the possible choices and their advantages and disadvantages, upon consideration, all too frequently gives rise to fantastic or inefficient steps.
From the point of view of the means available, study classes such as working groups or the individual left to himself may use either a pencil and paper, or even the combination of a pencil and printed guide, or visual and audiovisual means such as television combined with the computer, projection on a screen, or other uses of elaborate technical means. A dynamic process for grasping the development of a situation, respectively the incidence of variables on the development of a process at present exists as a graphic projection solely in combination with the above-mentioned elaborate and expensive means.
For its part, photo-copying has been introduced almost everywhere and has become very accessible due to the favourable development which has occurred in the relationship of the unit cost of a copy to the cost of the man hours saved. However, photo-copying as a pedagogic tool or didactic auxiliary, has hitherto not been used other than as means for the duplication, if necessary fixing of an original document.
Finally, auxiliary graphic means (tables, diagrams, models and their occasional moving accessories such as pegs, cut-outs etc.) have hitherto not benefitted from the resources of photo-copying in view of the general absence of compatibility between the mobility of some and imperatives of the other.